DRISCOLL

PROVIDENCE –– Frances P. Driscoll, one of the defendants in the Roger Williams Medical Center corruption trial, took a bad fall on the courthouse steps after court yesterday and was rushed to the hospital.

Late yesterday afternoon, the clerk for the presiding justice in the trial, Chief U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi, issued a media advisory stating that there would be no trial today, as previously planned, but that the trial was expected to resume tomorrow. No explanation was given.

Driscoll, 69, was in the emergency room at Rhode Island Hospital early last night, a hospital official said. The hospital declined to release any details about her condition, citing patient confidentiality.

She fell after court had adjourned yesterday, as she was descending the stone steps outside the federal courthouse in downtown Providence. Most of the people in the courtroom had dispersed by then, but the aftermath of her accident, including rescue workers putting her on a stretcher in a neck brace, were captured by a WPRI-Channel 12 cameraman who was outside the courthouse covering another case.

Lawyers for the government and the defense declined to comment.

Prior to Driscoll’s fall, it appeared that the case involving her and Robert A. Urciuoli, former executives at Roger Williams, would go to the jury tomorrow, following closing arguments today. As the third week of the federal corruption trial opened yesterday, the defense rested after just one witness and several exhibits, including videotaped highlights of former Sen. John A. Celona’s cable-access television show promoting Roger Williams.

Lisi sent jurors home about an hour early, telling them that their deliberations are near.

Will the jury be out seven days, as it was in the first trial of Urciuoli and Driscoll, which led to their convictions on charges of stealing Celona’s honest services as an elected official by hiring him as a consultant?

Or will it be a short deliberation, like the jury in a related CVS corruption case this spring that voted to acquit after just one hour?

The key could lie in an appeals-court decision early this year, which overturned Urciuoli’s and Driscoll’s 2006 convictions, and the instructions that the judge gives the jury.

In the first Roger Williams trial, the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled in January that the trial judge, Ernest C. Torres, had erred in instructing the jury.

Guided in part by that appeals-court ruling, Lisi instructed the jury in the CVS trial this spring that Rhode Island ethics law allows part-time legislators to work for a private company with business before the General Assembly, and even to participate in legislation affecting their employer in certain circumstances.

The other x-factor in play this time around is the presence –– or lack thereof –– of Celona, who pleaded guilty to selling his office to Roger Williams, CVS and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, and is serving a 2½-year prison term.

After appearing on the stand for six days in the first Roger Williams trial, and testifying for four days in the CVS trial, the ex-North Providence senator’s credibility had taken such a pounding from defense lawyers that the prosecution elected not to call him this time.

As a result of Celona’s absence, as well as court rulings narrowing the scope of evidence presented this time around, the retrial has gone more quickly and looked very different.

For long stretches, jurors and courtroom watchers have sat in the courtroom as the lawyers huddled in sidebar conferences with Lisi, hashing out the relevance of various witnesses and documents in an already scaled-back case.

Without Celona’s colorful presence, spinning yarns about State House politics and battling with defense lawyers as he recounted his purported political favors for Roger Williams, significant chunks of the case have been presented in the form of stacks of documents, from both the prosecution and the defense, with little or no explanation.

The lone witness yesterday, called by one of Driscoll’s lawyers, was Pamela Taylor, a former public-relations official who worked for Driscoll and now serves as communications director for Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island.

Taylor testified that she helped arrange for Roger Williams employees to appear on Celona’s cable television show, and that Celona also did other things to help promote the hospital’s range of services to senior citizens. Her testimony was intended to bolster the defense argument that Celona was hired to perform legitimate services, not for illicit political favors.

Fittingly, the final exhibit of the trial, introduced yesterday by Urciuoli’s lawyers, was a video montage of Celona’s cable-access television show, featuring appearances by Urciuoli and other Roger Williams doctors and personnel.

In one clip from the show, which a previous defense witness described as a 30-minute infomercial promoting Roger Williams, Celona waxes profound about the “elegance” of the hospital’s affiliated assisted-living center, which he also praises as “odor free.”

Ironically, the video broke down about halfway through the presentation. Lisi told the jurors that the lawyers would work on getting a better copy –– one that would be made available for their viewing, if they desire, once deliberations begin.

mstanton@projo.com